YMMV / The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Rather than Francis imagining the whole story, it was all an elaborate role-play by the Director to try and understand Francis's delusions. Similar in vein to Shutter Island.
  • Why does Francis see Dr. Caligari as the villain? Does he simply hate the doctor for trying to understand his mind, or is the doctor truly cruel to him, making Francis's fantasies a way to cope with the doctor's abuse? After all, insane asylums didn't exactly have the best track record when it came to humane treatment of their patients back in those days.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Cesare surprisingly isn't on screen for very long, despite arguably being the most memorable character in the movie.
• Everyone is Jesus in Purgatory: Siegfried Kracauer's influential study, From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film, argues that Caligari is a metaphor for the creeping authoritarianism in post-World War I Germany, and that the "escapist" film genres Caligari influenced, such as horror, science fiction, and crime, cultivated a political apathy that allowed the fascists to seize power. Most critics of the book feel that Kracauer overstated his case.
• Once Original, Now Common: This may not come as a surprise given that the film is not only a hundred years old, but is generally considered the first true horror movie. Many of the tropes and aesthetics associated with horror media started with this film, with the most notable being the Twist Ending, which today has become so common in horror movies that some directors have made it their thumbprint. Modern audiences might find this movie's twist ending a tad easy to figure out if one is paying enough attention.
• It Was His Sled: The events of the movie are just ramblings of a madman.
• Signature Scene: Cesare kidnapping Jane while being chased by an angry mob.
  • The Reveal that Francis is an inmate in an insane asylum who made up the entire story of Caligari. Not only is it one of the first Twist Endings in the history of film, but it's also one of the most controversial and talked about aspects of the movie. If the number of trope entries about it are any indication.
• The Un-Twist: It's obvious that the murders are conducted by Cesare, under Dr. Caligari's orders. It's actually a Red Herring for the real twist, that the entire scenario was All Just a Dream.

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